University of California San Francisco (UCSF) researchers published a paper, made available this week in Nature, titled Video Game Training Enhances Cognitive Control in Older Adults. We can expect our students, children and grandchildren (not to mention game manufacturers) to remind us they were "right." From the abstract for the UCSF researchers' article:

Here we show that multitasking performance, as assessed with a custom-designed three-dimensional video game (NeuroRacer), exhibits a linear age-related decline from 20 to 79 years of age. By playing an adaptive version of NeuroRacer in multitasking training mode, older adults (60 to 85 years old) reduced multitasking costs compared to both an active control group and a no-contact control group, attaining levels beyond those achieved by untrained 20-year-old participants, with gains persisting for 6 months.

I suspect we will see a lot more on this area of research in the near future. Funding should be robust. Of course, I also suspect that not every game is equally helpful to cognitive enhancement and thus caution and consumer protections may be appropriate.